Congratulations to Dr. Jennifer Bryson
Congratulations to former ISHN member Jennifer S. Bryson, whose Ph.D. dissertation (Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations, Yale University, 2000), "The Kitab al-Hawi of Razi (ca. 900 AD), Book One of the Hawi on brain, nerve, and mental disorders: Studies in the transmission of medical texts from Greek into Arabic into Latin", is now listed on Dissertation Abstracts International: http://wwwlib.umi.com/dissertations/fullcit/9991125 The abstract on DAI is difficult to read because the webmaster couldn't encode most of the diacritics; but the first 24 pages of the microfilmed document are available for free as a PDF file. After interning with and receiving an offer from CBS's "48 Hours" program, Dr. Bryson worked with "News Hour with Jim Lehrer" on the Public Broadcasting System (PBS). Jennifer was one of several former students recently profiled in _USNews_'s "Best Graduate Schools 2002" issue, in Rachel Hartigan's article, "When academic dreams fade: Many newly minted Ph.D.'s are landing wonderful jobs outside the ivory tower": Still, getting a job outside academia is easier said than done. career centers typically don't cater to graduate students: Historically, university departments advised their doctoral students on academic job searches, and few students considered, or admitted to considering, other options. Even now, advisers usually can't help their protégés find work in the private sector because they haven't worked on the outside themselves, and many share a bias against nonacademic careers. In fact, even today, students worry that they'll be treated with less respect job inquiries. The information blackout goes both ways. Employers don't always understand what getting a doctoral degree entails. A recruiter from the Federal Bureau of Investigation refused to give an application to Jennifer Bryson, a Yale Ph.D. in Arabic and Islamic studies, because she didn't have two years of consecutive employment. It didn't matter that she'd worked as a teaching assistant for three semesters and won several fellowships, including a Fulbright. "He didn't understand that [the Ph.D.] was a whole different level of responsibility than a bachelor's," she argues. http://www.usnews.com/usnews/edu/beyond/grad/gbalternative.htm Dr. Bryson is now a Middle East correspondent for Newsmax.com and its wire service, as well as a commentator for other news media. Russell Johnson ISHN Secretary